Saturday, August 23, 2008

Conrad: I’m going to the Farmer’s Market. Want to go?Carol: That would be rad!Conrad: Carol, please don’t say rad.Carol: Sorry. It’s because it’s part of your name, isn’t it?Conrad: No, it’s because I can’t stop thinking about the fact that our vegetables are now going to be zapped by radiation.Carol: Oh. But isn't the radiation going to kill E.-coli bacteria?Conrad: That’s what they say, but I don’t think it’s a very rad...I mean good idea.Carol: Still want to go to the Farmer’s Market?Conrad: No. Let’s go on a diet, then find out what foods aren’t radioactive before we eat again.

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

***

healing the earth, the body, the mind and spirit --- a non-profit web site

"Nuked Food" - The Dangers of Irradiated Food

Nuked food is the common term for irradiated food - food which is exposed to high level radiation for the purpose of sterilizing it. This high level radiation penetrates the food which, as anyone who has paid attention in chemistry knows, raises the energy level of the atoms and molecules which the food is composed of. This results in myriad "free radicals" - atoms which have lost an outer electron due to having absorbed a shot of higher energy.

And instead of being chemically neutral, such an atom has now become strongly attractive. This will break and re-arrange many chemicals bonds in the atoms, molecules and chemical compounds of the cells of the food under radiation. So much so that the cellular processes of any micro-organisms in the food are disrupted, and the micro-organisms in the food are killed.

The cells of micro-organisms live and die by exactly the same chemical laws and processes that our cells live by. And if our cells were subjected to the same radiation, they would die just as surely.

The idea is that the radiation dissipates, and things return to normal. But we have come to know and understand that free radicals form stable compounds that are different from the original chemical compounds, and that the free radicals and the altered compounds are harmful to us in many, many ways - among them a trigger for heart diseases and cancer.

The greatest danger, in my view, is the havoc such free radicals can wreak in the delicate chemistry of reproduction, when our cells, or an ova, divide and replicate - a cell or an an ovum is about the same size as a micro-organism - and in the growth and development of the embryo, when it is acutely vulnerable to any abnormalities.

Personally, I cannot understand how people can be so irresponsible to allow and apply what is such a powerful free radical creation tool that it kills all micro-organisms in the food - micro-organisms which live and die by exactly the same chemistry as we do. To me this is incomprehensible.

Here then is a calm and cogent article by an accomplished and respected Cancer research scientist, plus a few abstracts (no abstracts were available for many more papers) of animal trials done with irradiated food, as listed in the Public Archives of the National Library of Medicine.

Original Article:

George L. Tritsch, PhDCancer Research Scientist, Roswell Park Memorial Institute, New York State Department of Health.

I am speaking as a private citizen, and my opinions are my own, based on thirty-three years of experience since my doctorate at Cornell Medical College, Rockefeller University and, since 1959, as a cancer research scientist and biochemist at Roswell.

I am opposed to consuming irradiated food because of the abundant and convincing evidence in the refereed scientific literature that the condensation products of the free radicals formed during irradiation produce statistically significant increases in carcinogenesis, mutagenesis and cardiovascular disease in animals and man. I will not address the reported destruction of vitamins and other nutrients (what? - more nutrient deficiencies?; my comment) by irradiation because suitable supplementation of the diet can prevent the development of such potential deficiencies. However, I cannot protect myself from the carcinogenic and other harmful insults to the body placed into the food supples and I can see no tangible benefit to be traded for the possible increased incidence of malignant disease one to three decades in the future.

Irradiation works by splitting chemical bonds in molecules with high energy beams to form ions and free radicals. When sufficient critical bonds are split in organisms contaminating a food, the organism is killed. Comparable bonds are split in the food. Ions are stable; free radicals contain an unpaired electron and are inherently unstable and therefore reactive. How long free radicals remain in food treated with a given dose of radiation or the reaction products formed in a given food cannot be calculated but must be tested experimentally for each food. Different doses of radiation will produce different amounts and kinds of products.

The kinds of bonds split in a given molecule are governed by statistical considerations. Thus, while most molecules of a given fatty acid, for example, may be split in a certain manner, other molecules of the same fatty acid will be split differently. A free radical can either combine with another free radical to form a stable compound, or it can initiate a [chemical] chain reaction by reacting with a stable molecule to form another free radical, et cetera, until the chain is terminated by the reaction of two free radicals to form a stable compound. These reactions continue long after the irradiation procedure.

I am bringing this up to give you a rationale for the vast number of new molecules that can be formed from irradiation of a single molecular species, to say nothing of a complicated mixture such as food. Furthermore, the final number and types of new molecules formed will depend on the other molecules present in the sample. Thus, free radicals originating from fats could form new compounds with proteins, nucleic acids [DNA], and so forth.[ found at: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8979/page26.html ].

1) Micronucleus test in mice fed on an irradiated diet.Jpn J Vet Res 1989 Apr;37(2):41-7Endoh D, Hashimoto N, Sato F, Kuwabara M.A mutagenicity study was carried out in mice fed on a gamma-irradiated diet. As an indicator of mutagenic activity, we observed an incidence of micronuclei in erythrocytes. The average body weight of the mice fed on the diet irradiated to dose range of 400-1,000 kGy decreased, and the mice fed on the 800-1,000 kGy-irradiated diet died during the period from 8 to 14 days after the start of feeding. On the other hand, when the mutagenic activity of the irradiated diet was tested by observing occurrence of micronucleus in erythrocytes, no significant increase was recognized. These results indicated that the irradiated diet had no mutagenic activity, even though it possessed a toxic effect on the growth of mice. PMID: 2779058 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

2) Genetic effects of feeding irradiated wheat to mice.Can J Genet Cytol 1976 Jun;18(2):231-8Vijayalaxmi.The effects of feeding irradiated wheat in mice on bone marrow and testis chromosomes, germ cell numbers and dominant lethal mutations were investigated. Feeding of freshly irradiated wheat resulted in significantly increased incidence of polyploid cells in bone marrow, aneuploid cells in testis, reduction in number of spermatogonia of types A, B and resting primary spermatocytes as well as a higher mutagenic index. Such a response was not observed when mice were fed stored irradiated wheat. Also there was no difference between the mice fed un-irradiated wheat and stored irradiated wheat. PMID: 990994 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

3) Chromosome studies on bone marrow cells of Chinese hamsters fed a radiosterilized diet.Toxicology 1977 Oct;8(2):213-22Renner HW.Metaphase preparations of chromosomes from bone marrow cells of Chinese hamsters were examined for mutagenic effects following the feeding of a radiosterilized diet. No increase in the incidence of structural chromosomal aberrations was observed. As far as numerical aberrrations were concerned, the proportion of cells with polyploidy increased to between 4 to 5 times the control level, irrespective of the moisture content of the diet. This polyploidy effect occurred very early, being detectable within 24 h, if the diet fed had been irradiated with an absorbed dose of 4.5 - 10(6) rad. The incidence of polyploidy remained below 0.5%, however, nor did it rise with higher radiation doses. When the feeding of the irradiated diet was stopped, the proportion of polyploid cells returned to the control level within a maximum of 6 weeks. If the diet was stored (initially) for 6 weeks following irradiation before being fed to the animals no increase in the number of polyploid cells was noted. These results are not interpreted as a mutagenic effect of the irradiated diet. PMID: 929628 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

4) Irradiated laboratory animal diets: dominant lethal studies in the mouse.Mutat Res 1981 Feb;80(2):333-45Anderson D, Clapp MJ, Hodge MC, Weight TM.In 4 separate dominant lethal experiments groups of mice of either Charles River CD1 or Alderley Park strains were fed laboratory diets (Oakes, 41B, PRD, BP nutrition rat and mouse maintenance diet No. 1). The diets were either untreated (negative control diets) or irradiated at 1, 2.5 and 5 megarad and were freshly irradiated, or stored. The animals were fed their test diets for a period of 3 weeks prior to mating. Groups of mice given a single intraperitoneal injection of 200 mg cyclophosphamide per kg body weight served as the positive controls. Freshly irradiated PRD diet fed to male mice of both strains caused an increase in early deaths in females mated to the males in week 7 and to a lesser extent in week 4. The increase due to irradiation was small by comparison with that produced by the positive control compound. The responses for the other irradiated diets showed no significant increases in early deaths although some values for Oakes diet were high. The effect of storage was examined with PRD and BPN diet on one occasion and produced conflicting results. Thus there was some evidence that irradiated PRD diet has weak mutagenic activity in the meiotic and/or pre-meiotic phase of the spermatogenic cycle which appeared to be lessened on storage; the inclusion of such a diet in toxicological studies would therefore need to be carefully considered. PMID: 7207489 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

5) The effect of ionizing irradiation on sensory changes in feed in relation to their utilization by dogsVet Med (Praha) 1985 Dec;30(12):739-48, [Article in Czech]Smid K, Dvorak J, Hrusovsky J.To evaluate the effect of ionizing radiation on sensory changes of feeds in relation to their utilization by dogs, four groups of experimental animals were formed. Two groups were fed a ration where the main component (meat feed mixture VETACAN and loose feed mixture VETAVIT) was irradiated by radioisotope Co 60 at the dose of 25 kGy/kg for the period of 90 days. In the remaining two groups a non-irradiated ration was used for the same period. For both diets, control groups of dogs were formed and the feed ration was biologically fortified by a vitamin-mineral supplement to the physiological standard. It followed from the observations that the effect of radiation caused a significant qualitative decrease in the level of energy nutrients, particularly in the protein and lipid sphere. It is assumed that the extent of damage of lipid fraction is also accompanied by deficient vitamin activity and further by significant changes of taste and aromatic properties felt by animals. Irradiation of the feed ration caused a significant 20 to 25% decrease of food intake with a subsequent decrease of live weight and deterioration of physical condition. Irradiated diets without biological fortification caused significant losses of weight from the initial value mean = 39.5 kg to mean = 35.33 kg, in comparison with the non-irradiated rations through which the live weight was stabilized, and at biological fortification positively influenced. Irradiation of the feed ration during the period of study had not caused a response of the organism displayed in changes of physiological values of body temperature and heart and respiration rates in experimental animals. Radiosterilization of feeds had not caused any significant decrease of training ability and performance of dogs. PMID: 3937317 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

6) Immune response in rats given irradiated wheat.Br J Nutr 1978 Nov;40(3):535-41Vijayalaxmi.1. Rats given diets containing freshly-irradiated wheat showed significantly lower mean antibody titres to four different antigens, decreased numbers of antibody-forming cells in the spleen and rosette-forming lymphocytes as compared to rats given either unirradiated wheat or irradiated wheat stored for a period of 12 weeks. 2. The immune response in rats given 90 g protein/kg diet was essentially similar to that seen in animals given 180 g protein/kg diet. PMID: 568934 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Ninety-five percent of the objects represented by white dots in this computer-generated illustration are human-made debris. Scientists warn that the growing amount of space junk orbiting the Earth threatens the safety of human and robotic space missions.

***

As a teacher, I feel like I’m in a Batman movie, constantly being attacked by the Joker and the Penguin, and my Batmobile is now a Benchmark.

With so many skills to teach and learn, so many tasks to master, so many pages to cover, and so little time!What are we doing?What have we done?What are the consequences?Is this an effective and rational process?

Schools today have become test-taking factories.Teachers are on the same assembly line.We are producing human robots.

Today teachers assess and test.More time needs to be used for skills practice, not just test items to be learned because they are on standardized tests.Great books and great poetry have been replaced with benchmarks and test questions.

Teachers are no longer teaching.They have become testers and assessors.

The amount of material that I’m asked to cover makes me think about all of the thousands of space-junk objects circling the Earth.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

It's the end of the world as we know it.It's the end of the world as we know it.It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

R.E.M.

This is the endBeautiful friendThis is the end My only friend,The endOf our elaborate plans,The endOf everything that stands,The endNo safety or surprise,The end I'll never look into your eyes...again

THE DOORS

"You're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. And my chief of staff, Andy Card -- actually I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. And I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on, and I use to fly myself, and I said, "There's one terrible pilot." And I said, "It must have been a horrible accident." But I was whisked off there -- I didn't have much time to think about it, and I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my chief who was sitting over here walked in and said, "A second plane has hit the tower. America's under attack."George W. Bush

NOTE: THERE WAS NO LIVE VIDEO COVERAGE OF THE FIRST PLANE HITTING THE TOWER.

THERE COULDN'T BE.

VIDEO OF THAT FIRST PLANE HITTING THE TOWER DID NOT SURFACE UNTIL THE NEXT DAY!

"It is obvious that American foreign policy, with its goal of ringing Russia with US military bases, is leading directly to nuclear war. Every American needs to realize this fact. The US government's insane hegemonic foreign policy is a direct threat to life on the planet. Russia has made no threats against America. The post-Soviet Russian government has sought to cooperate with the US and Europe. Russia has made it clear over and over that it is prepared to obey international law and treaties. It is the Americans who have thrown international law and treaties into the trash can, not the Russians.In order to keep the billions of dollars in profits flowing to its contributors in the US military-security complex, the Bush Regime has rekindled the cold war. As American living standards decline and the prospects for university graduates deteriorate, 'our' leaders in Washington commit us to a hundred years of war.If you desire to be poor, oppressed, and eventually vaporized in a nuclear war, vote Republican."

Paul Craig Roberts

“At some point, we may be the only ones left. That’s okay with me. We are America.”George W. Bush

“The document ‘Project for the New American Century’ envisioned the United States as a colossus astride the world, imposing its will and keeping world peace through military and economic power. The defense secretary in 1992 was Richard Cheney; the document was drafted by Paul Wolfowitz, who at the time was defense under-secretary for policy.”Jay Bookman

“PNAC acknowledged that the ‘revolutionary’ changes it envisaged could take decades to bring about – unless, that is, the United States was struck by ‘some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.’That ‘new Pearl Harbor’ did come, of course, in the thunderclap of September 11, 2001. And the PNAC alumni now in government were quick to capitalize on this ‘catalyzing event.’”Chris Floyd

“The Dominators dream of empire. Not only will it extend their temporal power, they believe it will also give them immortality. Indeed, one of their chief gurus, Reaganite firebreather Michael Ledeen, says that if the Dominators have the courage to reject ‘clever diplomacy’ and ‘just wage total war’ to subjugate the Middle East, ‘our children will sing great songs about us years from now.’ This madness, this bin Laden-like megalomania is now driving the hijacked American republic – and the world – to murderous upheaval.”

Chris Floyd

“It has made it very difficult for the U.S. to take the moral or political high ground against Russia when just six years ago our country invaded and occupied another nation that had not attacked or immediately threatened us -- and didn't have the weapons of mass destruction that were used to argue that they might 'potentially' threaten our security.”Robert Creamer

***

If one man (or group of men) destroyed the World it would be recorded inside every history book as the most evil deed ever committed.(If there were any books left.)

The Electronic Memory of the Internet would most likely survive, and this horrific act would have been recorded.

Humans would not entirely disappear.(Stragglers and survivors would keep bowling, playing cards, making pizza…whatever.)

Call me a nut---a big paranoid nut---but what else have George W. Bush and his Regime been doing for the last eight years except destroying the World?

He who named others as evil was himself evil, while seeming to be good.

Norman Mailer wrote, “When we think we are nearest to God, we could be assisting the Devil.”

Mailer also said,“Evil…is to have a pretty good idea of the irreparable damage you’re going to do and then proceed to do it. In that sense…terrorism is evil.”

THE NEW WORLD DISORDER OF PRE-MEDITATED TERROR AND PRE-EMPTIVE WARS.

Whether it is Bush’s illegal and immoral Iraq war---or hisRegime’s devious secrecy and his own extreme hubris---or his actions and inactions on theEnvironment---or the complicity of his Regime before and after September 11, 2001---He has shown a deep disregard and contempt for America and the World.

What a way for the most powerful man in the world and his minions to “act”.

What a legacy!The most evil men of all time!They brought the world to an end.

THE WORST PERSONS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

Daddy would be proud.

Well, I guess he wouldn’t be proud.

Maybe Mommy would be.

What a Cast of Characters!

(Where are you Dante, Milton, Shakespeare?)

Maybe what has been done by George W. Bush and his minions is only the prelude to more gruesome things to come.

Again, this is extreme paranoia---hyper phobia---and I should be ashamed of my thoughts.

(“If my thought dreams could be seen They'd probably put my head in a guillotine.”Bob Dylan)

Here, however, are some more thoughts and opinions:

Michael Chertoff’s last name means “son of the Devil”.

His face sure fits the bill.

Condoleeza Rice has no evil etymology---but she sure has demonic-looking eyeballs!

(Chertoff’s are even scarier!)

Paul Wolfowitz (just his name is a dead give-away) and Donald Rumsfeld are both pretty scary “characters” to look at.

Rumsfeld even has a disease named after him.

(Google Rumsfeld’s Disease. It ain’t too sweet to read about what this means.)

And who can forget when Wolfowitz (with a grin) put a comb in his mouth and smeared it with his spit, then ran the saliva-covered comb through his hair.

Bush has that “devilish” grin.

Dick Cheney has that writhing mouth.

I guess he’s twisting and turning his mouth a lot because he has told so many lies.

If George W. Bush doesn’t end the World before he leaves office , he definitely has given us his (Skull and Bones) best to do so.

Let‘s hope that the Decider doesn’t receive a call from his God at 3:00 A.M. telling him to start Armageddon.

John McCain or Barack Obama will have the “play’s” plot and props waiting for each to use.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Georgia was armed and trained by the United States.Russia does not intend to be overpowered and outflanked by foreign powers.Georgia is NOT in the sphere of influence of Israel or the U.S., though each wants to have that influence.How would the United States react if Russia was arming and training Mexico's military?Russia is making defensive moves, and yes, flexing its muscles because of others flexing theirs.The world, and the "invaders", are painting Russia as the invader, but Georgia threw the first stone, and started this confrontation.Russia has as much reason to be wary about what exactly the West is up to in Georgia.There are serious military implications and repercussions because of the training and arming that has been done by Israel and the United States.

What does the resignation of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf mean for the U.S. and the war on terror?

It might mean that bin Laden won't any longer have the safe haven that Musharraf was providing.It means that $15,000,000,000 disappeared into a black hole (again).I wonder how much Musharraf personally received?Like everything else in the KingDumb of Bush, the alignment with Pakistan was pretty worthless.

How would you rate the objectivity of the news media in covering the presidential race?

FOX (FAKE) NEWS is spoon-fed by the Bush administration.Then FOX NEWS faithfully regurgitates the propaganda.I gave up on any “fair and balanced” reporting from FOX NEWS a very long time ago, though I will channel-surf to briefly hear Hannity whine and pine for his beloved neo-CONS.I quickly change the channel to get more balanced reporting on CNN and MSNBC.McCain was tortured for years, wasn’t he?So he should be able to tolerate the pain of not getting the attention he thinks he should receive from the media, which will always report on juicy and more outrageous stories anyway, like when McCain mispronounced Shaskevelli (three times), or when Obama said that there are 57 U.S. states.

Monday, August 18, 2008

AT HELL’S GATES? AT THE GATES OF HELL?OR GATES ON THE DOORSTEP OF HELL?

With this fingerWhich I have raisedI won’t malingerTo put out the blazeOf a Russian BearWho won’t alter his waysAnd stay inside his lair.The Cold WarHas just walkedThrough the Door,It’s that time Once againFor the Earth To get scared In its Den.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

You’re sitting on the same old mule, kicking the same (oil) can, swimming in the same old oil slick (hole), and drilling and pumping the same old “gas”.Go ahead and drill, drill, drill and keep using more and more oil instead of developing alternatives, but this is endangering the planet now, in the near the future, and in the distant future for our grandchildren's children and their children.This is not the Stone (or Dark Age), but you keep repeating yourself (like history), and repeat the “tune” that we won't be successful at developing technologies to replace the fossil fuels.Yes, we can; yes, we must.Higher gas prices are forcing us to wake up and accept the reality that we MUST DECREASE OUR OIL ADDICTION...

And the addiction to huge profits that oil companies have---

Whether it's from domestic or foreign petroleum.Refine coal into gas, but use super-clean scrubbers and “re-cyclers” to preclude the release of carbon emissions.Develop technology to capture the methane that cows are constantly burping.The current road is not paved with gold, but with dangerous, global-changing carbon footprints.Have you heard about the frogs and bees that are dying off, which scientists attribute to rising temperatures and changing climate?Yes, develop more nuclear power plants.

These would give us the needed time to change to solar and wind technologies, and permit us to depend less and less upon fossil fuels.We have to compromise on this important issue:

Drill for oil, build more nuclear plants, but develop the Alternative Energy Technologies.We didn’t get light bulbs from a person who was negative, lazy, whining, and pessimistic.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Yes, such a book might whip up a swirling whirlpool of doubts and innuendoes, whether the book is read or not.

Just hearing the pundits swish this swirling swill will be unfavorable to Obama.

The voters are going to hear the negative components of this book, and it may swiftly drown Obama’s chances to win in November.

Obama must counter with swift and honest rebuttals, which is already being done.

Is JohnMcCain hypocritical to condemn Russia for invading Georgia when he voted to invade Iraq?

McCain is hypocritical with a HUMONGOUS capital “h”.

After eight years of “SuperHyperHypocrisy”, McCain is just wagging the tail on the same damned dog.

What would Colin Powell’s endorsement mean for Barack Obama?

It would be powerful.

If Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama, and then Obama chose Powell to be his running mate, I believe that America would overwhelmingly select these two instead of McCain and Lieberman (or whoever).

Even though Mr. Powell was “fed” misinformation (by Cheney and Tenet), then spewed it out at the U.N., voters know that he is overall a very astute and capable leader who offsets the McCain claim of being the “experienced war veteran” who would lead better than Barack Obama.

When it comes to the convention, has Barack Obama let Hillary Clinton take over?

I could write that Hillary Clinton is a stubborn loser in a pantsuit that should just swallow her pride, but I won’t.

Let her in on the power and the glory; let her supporters be appeased.

Obama and his handlers must know more than we do, or they surely would not be shining the light so brightly upon Bill and Hillary.

Why are members of the military donating more money to Barack Obama despite John McCain’s military background?

These courageous soldiers know the lies that put them in MessOpotamia.

Obama knew it would be a mistake to invade Iraq, and he has been proven right.The titles of McBush and McSame for John McCain indicate what John McCain isn't about.

He isn’t about change.

He isn’t much different from Bush.

The military wants Barack Obama to lead them out of the debacle that the Bush administration created.

Why isn’t there more support for third party candidates?

As an aging but still wise Gore Vidal has told us many times, there is really only one party in America, and that is the Money Party, even though Democrats paint themselves differently from Republicans.

A third party candidate, even if he or she is super-rich, will never get enough votes.

As much as Americans are fed up with the two political parties, they know that a third party could never win.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Imperialists and dictators will continue to fight their wars on Earth for the Earth’s oil, but these “leaders” (and the planet that they are exploiting and warring for) may have something to really worry about if Jupiter “misbehaves”.

We often hear doom and gloom scenarios and predictions, such as:

The Halogen supercollider will create a black hole that will destroy the Earth.

The world will end in 2012 according to the Mayan calendar.

Aliens are going to take over the Earth.

There will be a Global Bird-flu epidemic.

Global Warming is going to kill us.

George W. Bush, John McCain, or Barack Obama will start World War III and IV.

The article below gives us one more scenario.

It is only normal to not worry until something bad happens.

But while countries continue to fan their foolish fires,

Jupiter might have its own plans to chill these fires.

Until then…

What will we do?

Shop until we drop?

Don’t worry, be happy?

Article

Jupiter and its moons prepare nuclear winters for Earth

Inexplicable phenomena take place on Jupiter, the largest planet of the solar system. The gas giant has been quiet for hundreds of years. However, two new red spots have been formed in its atmosphere over the recent three years. Each spot is five or ten times bigger than the Earth.

Mysterious phenomena take place on one of its largest moons, Europa, too. Its ice-heavy poles shifted 90 degrees and changed their places with the equator in May of the current year.

Jupiter is the only planet in the solar system which has the thermonuclear reaction happening in its depths. This process of the planet is similar to that of stars, although Jupiter produces a lot less energy as a result of the process. Needless to say that the solar system may suffer a tremendous explosion in the event something goes wrong inside its biggest planet. The blast wave will reach Earth and destroy every living organism on it.

The Jupiter disaster develops according to the scenario described in Arthur Clarke’s Space Odyssey epic. In Clarke’s novels, Jupiter becomes a star as a result of a thermonuclear reaction, which triggers the development of life on its moon, Europa.

In addition to that, St. Petersburg-based scientist Eduard Drobyshevsky said that the planet’s another giant moon, Callisto, may experience drastic changes too. The ice shell of the moon may explode, the scientist believes. Gigantic pieces of the ice shell will fall down on Earth, exterminating all forms of life.

Scientists say that massive ice shells of other moon-like natural satellites of giant planets (Saturn and Jupiter) have exploded before. Many short-period comets were formed as a result of such explosions.

“Imagine this. Our Moon is enveloped in ice, the thickness of which is 800 kilometers. This is what a typical massive natural satellite like Jupiter’s Callisto looks like. It is dirty ice, which conducts electric current because all of this moves in the magnetic field, in the magnetosphere of a giant planet. Ice is a very good conductor, especially if it is dirty. Electrolysis of ice occurs as a result,” Drobyshevsky told RIA Novosti.

Drobyshevsky said that one of such ice explosions took place about 10,000 years ago, when the ice shell of Saturn’s moon – Titan – exploded. The explosion resulted in the creation of Titan’s atmosphere, Saturn’s ice rings and several short-period comets.

Jupiter’s satellite, Callisto, has the oldest ice shell among all natural satellites of all planets of the solar system. The shell has not exploded before and can thus be saturated with hydrogen and oxygen – the products of ice electrolysis. Consequences of their detonation can be fatal for planet Earth.

“Callisto is a lot closer than Titan. The explosion of its shell will lead to nuclear winters on Earth. It will be a horrible disaster for the biosphere,” Drobyshevsky said

Thursday, August 14, 2008

The lame duck is George W. Bush, and it is the war between Georgia and Russia.

Robert Scheer has alleged (you can read Scheer’s short essay below) that Georgia made the first aggressive move (and was prompted to do so) in order to get the Russian Bear to attack, and thus give McCain the thrust he needs to accelerate his voyage forward towards becoming the next president of the United States.

Even if the Decider doesn’t send his military to aid Georgia, John-bomb-bomb-McCain is on his way, and more than willing to "get the job done", to use one of the favorite phrases from the Bush Regime.

On the world stage stands this strong, brave, forceful, tortured war hero, who will keep our soldiers marching to war…keep the mammoth machine of the military-industrial complex in business...to protect America and save the world from terrorists and the big, bad Russian Bear.

I don’t disagree that Russia is doing a very bad thing, but Georgia did not do a good thing.

It is all quite good for the candidate who wants the American public to vote for him, for the experienced and aggressive leader, for the one who will protect us from the big, bad wolf…I mean Bear.

Obama’s polite diplomatic responses (and his persona in general) have changed into more harsh tones after McCain’s own forceful criticism.

Shotgun Dick Quack-Quack Cheney blustered that Russia’s attack can’t go unanswered, but he didn’t personally state this, Dick said this “through a spokeswoman.”

This news brought to mind the scene in the movie Ghost when Oda May Brown lets Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze)“jump into her body” so that Sam and Molly (Demi Moore) can make physical contact.

Dick not only requires undisclosed locations and massive safes for all of his secrets, but he also has to use a medium to pass his words through.

What a spooky guy, and what unimaginable nightmares he must be having when he’s not out hunting.

***

Georgia War a Neocon Election Ploy?

By Robert ScheerAugust 12, 2008

Is it possible that this time the October surprise was tried in August, and that the garbage issue of brave little Georgia struggling for its survival from the grasp of the Russian bear was stoked to influence the U.S. presidential election?

Before you dismiss that possibility, consider the role of one Randy Scheunemann, for four years a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government who ended his official lobbying connection only in March, months after he became Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser.

Previously, Scheunemann was best known as one of the neoconservatives who engineered the war in Iraq when he was a director of the Project for a New American Century. It was Scheunemann who, after working on the McCain 2000 presidential campaign, headed the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which championed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

There are telltale signs that he played a similar role in the recent Georgia flare-up. How else to explain the folly of his close friend and former employer, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in ordering an invasion of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, an invasion that clearly was expected to produce a Russian counterreaction? It is inconceivable that Saakashvili would have triggered this dangerous escalation without some assurance from influential Americans he trusted, like Scheunemann, that the United States would have his back. Scheunemann long guided McCain in these matters, even before he was officially running foreign policy for McCain’s presidential campaign.

In 2005, while registered as a paid lobbyist for Georgia, Scheunemann worked with McCain to draft a congressional resolution pushing for Georgia’s membership in NATO. A year later, while still on the Georgian payroll, Scheunemann accompanied McCain on a trip to that country, where they met with Saakashvili and supported his bellicose views toward Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Scheunemann is at the center of the neoconservative cabal that has come to dominate the Republican candidate’s foreign policy stance in a replay of the run-up to the war against Iraq. These folks are always looking for a foreign enemy on which to base a new Cold War, and with the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, it was Putin’s Russia that came increasingly to fit the bill.

Yes, it sounds diabolical, but that may be the most accurate way to assess the designs of the McCain campaign in matters of war and peace. There is every indication that the candidate’s demonization of Russian leader Putin is an even grander plan than the previous use of Saddam to fuel American militarism with the fearsome enemy that it desperately needs.

McCain gets to look tough with a new Cold War to fight while Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, scrambling to make sense of a more measured foreign policy posture, will seem weak in comparison. Meanwhile, the dire consequences of the Bush legacy that McCain has inherited, from the disaster of Iraq to the economic meltdown, conveniently will be ignored. But the military-industrial complex, which has helped bankroll the neoconservatives, will be provided with an excuse for ramping up a military budget that is already bigger than that of the rest of the world combined.

What is at work here is a neoconservative, self-fulfilling prophecy in which Russia is turned into an enemy that expands its largely reduced military, and Putin is cast as the new Josef Stalin bogeyman, evoking images of the old Soviet Union. McCain has condemned a “revanchist Russia” that should once again be contained. Although Putin has been the enormously popular elected leader of post-Communist Russia, it is assumed that imperialism is always lurking, not only in his DNA but in that of the Russian people.

How convenient to forget that Stalin was a Georgian, and indeed if Russian troops had occupied the threatened Georgian town of Gori they would have found a museum still honoring the local boy, who made good by seizing control of the Russian revolution. Indeed five Russian bombs were allegedly dropped on Gori’s Stalin Square on Tuesday.

It should also be mentioned that the post-Communist Georgians have imperial designs on South Ossetia and Abkhazia. What a stark contradiction that the United States, which championed Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, now is ignoring Georgia’s invasion of its ethnically rebellious provinces.

For McCain to so fervently embrace Scheunemann’s neoconservative line of demonizing Russia in the interest of appearing tough during an election campaign is a reminder that a senator can be old and yet wildly irresponsible.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

In order to satisfy Hillary Clinton’s supporters, should her name be placed in nomination at the convention?

You can deposit this sore loser’s name in the dumpster.

She lost.

She is not the Democratic candidate.

Obama is, and before she ever delivers any speech at the Democratic convention, she should come right out and say, “Do not submit my name for nomination, because Senator Obama is the presidential candidate that I support and who must be elected in November.”

Hillary Clinton is, was, and will always be a politician whose fangs, teeth, and nails will continue to strike, knash, and scratch for power.

She shouldn’t satisfy her supporters, but support the candidate who won the nomination.

Have 26 days in a row of falling gas prices improved your outlook?

Well, yes, but I look for prices to eventually go up again.

It has been helpful to have a little extra to buy food.

How much does politics have to do with gas prices going down in an election season?

Is the GOP putting us over a barrel?

Should the ban on offshore drilling be lifted?

I want drilling here, there, and everywhere.

Drill, drill, drill.

Drill to the center of the earth…well, not quite that far.

But while drilling is going on, make sure that something like an Apollo program/Manhattan project commitment is made to develop alternative sources to replacefossil fuels, so that dependency on our own domestic oil supplies decreases rather than increases.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Throughout our history, the words of the Declaration have inspired immigrants from around the world to set sail to our shores. These immigrants have helped transform 13 small colonies into a great and growing nation of more than 300 people.

George W. Bush

In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem.

George Carlin

I was not elected to serve one party.

George W. Bush

You were not elected.

Jon Stewart

The Senate is constipated. This legislative body needs a function, a laxative.

If I have to follow him to the Gates of Hell, I will get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.

John McCain

Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.http://money.aol.com/news/articles

About 20% of the cost of the Iraq War has gone to paying contractors,and there are 190,000 of their employees in Iraq. That is more than all the multinational forces combined!Professor Juan Cole

I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

George Carlin

Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that moststupid people are conservative.

John Stuart Mill

What Republicans really mean by “energy independence” is prevailing over environmentalists. Republicans lump environmentalists in the same category with abortionists, gays, feminists, food stamp recipients, trade unionists and terrorists. To a Republican, saving America means prevailing over these people.

Paul Craig Roberts

The “war on terror” is a hoax used to justify war crimes and the overthrow of America’s civil liberties.

Paul Craig Roberts

IT DONT GITMO BETTER.

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He should have just stuck with the camera. Cameras don't get pregnant.Rush Limbaugh (on John Edwards).